This invention relates generally to chest and shoulder rests for stringed musical instruments of the violin and viola type.
Generally speaking, a variety of such pads have been known and used in the prior art to protect the chest, or shoulder in particular, the clavical of a violinist from bruises and abrasions caused by rubbing movement of the instrument when in use. Among such prior art pads are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,524,526 issued to W. J. Hines on Oct. 3, 1950; U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,329 issued to D. M. Annessa on Aug. 6, 1974; U.S. Pat. No. 1,156,925 issued to B. Poehland on Oct. 19, 1915; and Netherlands Pat. No. 64,911 published July 15, 1949. All of the subject devices are characterized by padding disposed on a lower corner portion of the underside surface of a violin resonance box beneath the area of the upper surface where the chin meets the instrument. The pads shown in the subject Annessa, Poehland, Netherlands and Hines patents connect by means of looped straps to a lower corner portion of the C-shaped constriction or bout located on the same side of the resonance box of the instrument upon which the chin of the player rests. The first two reference pads are connected between the bout corner and the tail piece anchor button located on the centerline of the instrument at the lower end of the resonance box. The pad disclosed in the Hines patent connects between an inside bout corner and the chin rest of the instrument and covers the latter element.
One difficulty that has been encountered with such prior art devices, except the Annessa device, is their tendency to slide laterally upon the underside surface of the resonance box with rubbing movement of the musician thereagainst, sometimes necessitating occasional and other times frequent readjustment. The device of the Annessa patent overcomes this problem through the use of an elongated, snake-like rigid are connected between the anchor button and one bout corner, the length of the arm extending nearly the entire intervening distance therebetween.
By means of my invention, this and other difficulties encountered in the use of prior art violin chest and shoulder pads is substantially reduced if not altogether eliminated.